They came, and they were taken by--Those who are now my people.

Then my mother, who was very beautiful, was lifted before him who rules here and she found favor in his sight and he had built for her this house, which now is mine.
"And in time I was born--but not in this house.

Nay--in a secret place of light where, too, are born my people." She was silent.

I shot a glance at Drake.

The secret place of light--was it not that vast vault of mystery, of dancing orbs and flames transmuted into music into which we had peered and for which sacrilege, I had thought, had been thrust from the City?
And did in this lie the explanation of her strangeness?
Had she there sucked in with her mother's milk the enigmatic life of the Metal Hordes, been transformed into half human changeling, become true kin to them?
What else could explain-- "My mother showed me Ruszark," her voice, taking up once more her tale, checked my thoughts.